Brilliant Ideas
by Acepilot6
Summary: Returning home after a trip, Chuckie is surprised to find he now has a roomate...CA. Sequel to Visiting Hours, no.5 in the Road series. please r&r.


**Brilliant Ideas**

Acepilot

Authors Notes - No.5 in the "Road" series. Directly follows from "Visiting Hours", continuing the CA storyline. Set just after "Road Trip".

Disclaimer - All AGU characters property of Klasky Csupo

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I sigh in relief as I open the door to my apartment, kicking off my shoes and depositing my keys in the bowl next to the door. Tommy and Lil's impromptu wedding was beautiful, but god am I glad to be home. Three days spent mostly on the road is something I didn't exactly enjoy.

I'm tossing up on whether to get a drink or just go to bed, when I notice something out of the ordinary.

There's another pair of shoes next to where I keep mine.

They're white, but dirty. Grass and mud stains. Runners. Small. Feminine.

Hmm.

I look up at my living room.

I rub my eyes and look again.

There's a white t-shirt that's several sizes too small for me draped across the back of the couch, and a coffee mug on the table with "I want it all!" written on it.

I know that mug. I bought her that mug.

"Where the hell have you been!?"

I tear my eyes away from the ambomination of my living room, to the hallway, where none other than Angelica Pickles stands, rubbing her hair dry with a towel - one of mine, I realise absently - dressed in that cute little set of flannel pyjamas that she's worn over here a few times, and glaring at me.

I can't seem to find my voice for a few minutes, but I finally manage, "Pardon?"

"Where the hell have you been, Finster? I've been worried sick!" She's coming towards me now, glaring at me with those eyes I've long-ago learned to be frightened of, and I have to try damn hard not to back up. "No note! No anything! You just disappeared! You haven't been home or in class for days!"

"So you thought you'd move in?" I ask amusedly once I finally find my voice.

She frowned at me. "I got sick of continually calling you and finding no-one there."

I have a feeling there's more to it than that, but I won't push for the moment. "Well, I didn't really think to leave a note considering no-one else lives here," I pointed out logically. "And I really was going to call you, it was just -"

"I'm not important enough!?" Christ, she's screaming now. Not good, not good. Damage control.

"Angelica, you're one of my best friends, of course you're important enough." Right, that seemed to placate her. Now, what happens next? "Why are you here?"

She looks down at her feet. "I had a big fight with Jane."

Ah. "She throw you out?"

I'm rewarded with a nod. "And not a peep out of you."

I cut off my comment about the two of them not being civil enough to each other to survive in the same environment, and drop my bag - which is starting to cut circulation off to my arm - on the floor. "I'd ask you if you wanted a coffee, but I'm assuming you already know where everything is."

Bad thing to say. Whatever had her quiet, she snaps out of it. "Nuh-uh! Don't avoid the question anymore, Finster! Where the hell have you been!?"

I sigh in resignation and make my way toward the kitchen. She's hot on my heels, as I expected. "On a road trip."

She lets out a slightly exasperated laugh. "You? A road trip?"

"Of sorts," I offer, pulling out the instant coffee from the top cupboard and putting the kettle onto boil. I miss the Java Lava, but you make do.

"Where to?"

Alright, let's dance. "A church."

_That _threw her. "A church?"

I pour the water into my mug, and head over toward the fridge for some milk. "Yeah. I had a wedding to go to."

I spare her a glance and am quite satisfied to notice that she's practically tearing her hair out. "Finster, if you don't give me a straight answer, I swear I'll -"

"Tommy and Lil eloped."

Silence.

If she's going to be living here, I better not get used to it.

"Tommy and Lil -"

"- eloped," I finished for her, taking a relieving sip of coffee and sighing in minute pleasure.

"Huh."

I walk back out into the lounge room and sit down in my chair, noting with some fright that there appears to be a bra on my couch.

Hang on. No bedding on the couch. She's been sleeping in my bed.

Christ. It drives me nuts when she does that. She never makes it. She is - despite my best efforts to the contrary on the many nights she's stayed over - a magnet for mess and chaos of all kinds.

"Why?"

I take another sip. "They're in love. He proposed, neither of them wanted to wait."

She sits down on the couch, noticeably avoiding the bra without looking. "Why did they invite you?"

I gaze at her levelly. "Because we're best friends. Phil and Kimmi came too."

Her eyebrows shoot up at that. "Really? Those two in the same place together for more than an hour?"

I chuckle quietly, thankful to be off the previous line of questioning. "More than that. He drove her there. Five hour drive, apparently. And the two of them were acting very wierd the whole time."

"Uncomfortable?" she questions.

I shake my head. "No."

"Interesting..."

She should have gone into investigative journalism. Seriously.

"Don't even think about it," I warn her. "Let them be. Whatever happens happens."

She glares at me, but remains silent. She knows I'm right.

"Why did you get invited and not me?"

I shrug. "Dil didn't get invited either," I point out. "Or Susie."

But she's hurt by it, and I can tell.

Oh well, at least it wasn't my fault.

She sinks into the couch and starts sulking.

"I'm going to bed," I tell her.

"Alone?"

Over the last three and a half months, I've really been beginning to think there's something more than a platonic friendship between Angelica and myself. Nothing I'm willing to put any money on...but it's the little things. She's here endlessly. She flirts with me. I've eaten more meals with her over the last dozen weeks than I have without her.

It's practically like we're a couple already.

"Why, are you offering?"

I flirt too.

She grins. "Always."

I shake my head at her as I get up. "If you've twisted up my sheets again, I'm going to throw you out."

She looks up in surprise. "I was kind of assuming you were going to do that anyway."

I shake my head. "We'll give this a try. But if you drive me insane, you're out of here."

She grins at me darkly. "Sounds good."

"That wasn't a challenge," I inform her, but it's unconvincing, and we both know it.

She jumps up and kisses me on the cheek. She does that a lot. "Of course it isn't." She strolls - almost seductively - in the direction of my bedroom.

"Where do you think you're going?"

She grabs the doorjamb and swings herself around, with that impossibly beautiful smile on her face. "To untwist your sheets."

I laugh out loud.

We're living together.

I'm in for it now, but I don't mind.

This was a brilliant idea.

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the c-a plotline has really inspired me at the moment, and it's more playful, which is allowing me to get past some really miserable stuff going on in my own life. so i might do a few more with them. i will return to pk and dilamanda sooner or later, i promise. for the moment...please review, and i'll see what i can come up with.

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